The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1887-12-02
FRENCH SPECIALISTS, OBSERVATIONS
Tho Mysteries of Right and Left-Left-
handed people-Criminals.

handed People-Criminals.
Some French specialists have recently
been making observations with view to
Calculating some mysteries in this matter
Of right and left. Ono of them, in order
to determine whether it is true that men
are born with the right side more devel-
oped than the left, has weighed, with
every prccaution to render hisexperments
accurate, the limbs of eleven issants of
less than 2 years of age-in the dissecting
room of course. He measured the bones
OF the arms and limbs, but in neither in
stance did he find much difference though
the variations were sufficient to lead him
to the conclusion that though right and
LETT depend partially on heredity, it is
even more directly attributable to educa-
tion-that is, to the fact that in regard to
the two hands the child is never per-
mitted, nor is the adult, for that matter,
to use them Unfortunately
Another French specialist has examined
the teeth with results which he considers
more convincing. In siXty-four subjects,
taken indiscriminately, he found that
forty-one had defects of various kinds on
the left side and only twenty-five defects
or anomalies on the right. This was ow-
ing to the general enfeeblement of the left
at the expense of the opposite side, which
is more favored by exercise, and possibly
by the freer circulation of the blood. The
left side of the jaw is weaker and less
healthy, It was observed by the same
specialist that in the case of left handed
persons the defects were mostly on the
right. Left handed persons are rare in all
countries, though the number might be
increased by education. Delaunay, a
French author, counts one for every forty.
Lambroso, an Italian writer, found among
67l workingmen twenty-seven who We're
left handed and little more than per
cent. who were ambideNterous. Among
100 Bcrsagleri, that is, soldiers of the
mountain regiments, he found 5 per cent
nmbideXters, and on another occasion
thirteen left handed and one ambideXter
among 23S workmen.
Another observer found among the chill
dren of q boarding school 12 per cent. left
handed and 8S per cent using both hands.
A person born left handed can be taught
to use his right hand with considerable
skill, though he is always ready to resort
to the left when he is in danger, because
it is the stronger. Left handed persons,
that is, those born SO, are said by some
physiologists to be degenerated, and some
6OFu Ol mental lnIerlOflCy or ccCeQCrlClGY
accompanies the defect, as is usually the
case with persons afflicted with strabis-
mus, harelip, prognathism or other physi-
cal peculiarities il the nature of defor1ni-
ty. 1t has been remarked that there is a
considerable per cent. of left handed
among the insane, and two Italian ply
scians found among ninety insane pa
tients seventy-three whose sensibility
was greater on the left side than on
the right The criminal instinct seems
stronger among left handed than among
right handed people, DIR. Mario, an
Italian, found in a given number of male
criminals nearly Il per cent left handed
and % per cent. among the female delin-
quents-that is to say, for the men three
times the proportion found among honest
people, and for female criminals four
times the proportion. No one need then
desire to be born left handed since this
class is handicapped with either physical
or mental disease, demoralizing if not
serious. This need not prevent children
born right handed from being taught the
use of the left, that they may use either,
according to necessity. That this can be
done is shown by the rapidity with which
persons who have lost the right hand or
arm acquire the adroit use of the other.
1t may be said that as regards the use of
the right hand and the left man is the
subject of hcredity without being abso-
lutcly its slave.-San Francisco Chronicle.